Macao [1952 film]
by Josef von Sternberg (Director), Nicholas Ray (Director)
On This Page
Description
A married couple in Australia find themselves at odds when the wife wants to settle down on a farm of their own, but the husband finds settling down more than his untethered spirit can bear.Tags
Recommendations
Member Reviews
Despite its detractors, and its troubled production history, this is an entertaining Robert Mitchum film. This crime caper in exotic surroundings is a real winner. A lot was working against this film, however. Gloria Grahame hated RKO's Howard Hughes and was in the process of divorcing producer Nicholas Ray at the time Macao was made. The starting script was an indecipherable mess, and the director was an overbearing egoist who nearly provoked Mitchum to violence. The lead female role should have been Grahame’s, with Russell, taking the secondary role. The fact that the end results are still so utterly entertaining is a sheer miracle.
Mitchum's character, Nick Cochran, ends up in Macao and is mistaken for Lawrence Trumble (William show more Bendix), who might or might not be a cop looking to extradite casino owner Vincent Halloran (Brad Dexter). Margie (Gloria Grahame) is the sensuous and abused ingenue tangled up with Halloran, and would steal every scene she’s in were she not equaled by Mitchum. Though she isn’t a favorite of mine, Russell and Mitchum had an easy rapport on and off screen apparently, but the film still would have been better with Gloria Grahame in her role and Russell taking over Gloria’s part.
Mitchum and Russell both had tremendous difficulties working with Joseph von Sternberg, and teamed up to against his dictatorial manner. Mitchum not only rewrote some of the convoluted script, but when Nicholas Ray had to step in, he reportedly helped direct some scenes as well. Everyone is a bit of a mystery in this film as to their motives and actions, spicing things up. The cops need to get Halloran out of Macao to nab him, but since everyone seems to be a bit on the shady side, it's hard to know who to trust.
Thomas Gomez rounds out the great cast as Lt. Sebastian. The exotic locale and attractive players makes for fine Hollywood escapism. That said, it's best not to think about this one too hard, and just sit back and enjoy it. A lot of fun. show less
Mitchum's character, Nick Cochran, ends up in Macao and is mistaken for Lawrence Trumble (William show more Bendix), who might or might not be a cop looking to extradite casino owner Vincent Halloran (Brad Dexter). Margie (Gloria Grahame) is the sensuous and abused ingenue tangled up with Halloran, and would steal every scene she’s in were she not equaled by Mitchum. Though she isn’t a favorite of mine, Russell and Mitchum had an easy rapport on and off screen apparently, but the film still would have been better with Gloria Grahame in her role and Russell taking over Gloria’s part.
Mitchum and Russell both had tremendous difficulties working with Joseph von Sternberg, and teamed up to against his dictatorial manner. Mitchum not only rewrote some of the convoluted script, but when Nicholas Ray had to step in, he reportedly helped direct some scenes as well. Everyone is a bit of a mystery in this film as to their motives and actions, spicing things up. The cops need to get Halloran out of Macao to nab him, but since everyone seems to be a bit on the shady side, it's hard to know who to trust.
Thomas Gomez rounds out the great cast as Lt. Sebastian. The exotic locale and attractive players makes for fine Hollywood escapism. That said, it's best not to think about this one too hard, and just sit back and enjoy it. A lot of fun. show less
Ratings
Members
- Recently Added By
Author Information
Sternberg was born to a middle-class Jewish family in Vienna and emigrated to the United States at the age of 17. During World War I, he produced training films for the U.S. Army Signal Corps. After the war ended, he worked in various menial positions in the film industry before becoming an assistant director in 1921 and a director a few years show more later. At that time, the aristocratic von was attached to his name by a producer who thought it would add class. His directorial debut was in 1925, with the low-budget but very successful Salvation Hunters; however, Sternberg only really made a name for himself with Underworld (1926), the first of several gangster films featuring George Bancroft. These were especially remarkable for their cinematography and lighting, which revealed the influence of expressionism in their play with light and dark. Sternberg never made a color film, but he exploited the medium of black and white to create textured spaces of light and shadow, smoke and mist, and screens and veils, which were symbolically and emotionally resonant. Although critics have sometimes found his narratives thin, they have agreed that his visuals are stunning. While Sternberg was considered one of Hollywood's most important directors in his own day, he is now remembered chiefly for his seven films with Marlene Dietrich. He discovered her in a cabaret in Berlin, where he had gone to film The Blue Angel (1930), Germany's first sound production; she was cast as the provocative singer Lola-Lola, a role that made her a star. Sternberg carefully managed her screen image in the six other films that he made with her: Morocco (1930), Dishonored (1931), Shanghai Express (1932), Blonde Venus (1932), The Scarlet Empress (1934), and The Devil Is a Woman (1935). Sternberg was notoriously imperious and autocratic, with a fondness for jodhpurs and riding boots, and was thought of as something of a caricature of the Hollywood director. The role he envisioned for Dietrich was that of the femme fatale, the desirable but enigmatic and even dangerous lady who seems to symbolize the "eternal feminine" and the attraction, mystery, and threat that that image holds for men. Feminist film theorists have suggested that Sternberg's visual style, as well as Dietrich's acting style, work to expose and critique the sexism of this archetype of femininity. Sternberg's difficulties with I, Claudius I, Claudius (unfinished, 1937) damaged his reputation in Hollywood, and he worked irregularly thereafter. His last film---his favorite project---was natahan (1953), about Japanese soldiers isolated on an island at the close of World War II. Although he traveled to international film festivals and occasionally lectured in the years that followed, he never made another film. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
All Editions
Work Relationships
Is contained in
Is an adaptation of
Common Knowledge
Classifications
Statistics
- Members
- 21
- Popularity
- 1,236,168
- Reviews
- 1
- Rating
- (3.17)
- Languages
- English, French
- ISBNs
- 4
- UPCs
- 7
- ASINs
- 5
